Totally forgot to link it last week, but here’s my ANN review of the first half of My Hero Academia S2! I’ve covered it episodically and in larger pieces before, but never as a discreet collection of episodes unto itself, so this gave me the chance to reflect on this particular arc’s place in both MHA and shounen storytelling convention, which was nice. Here’s the review!
My Hero Academia Season Two, Part One
Another week of anime has come and gone, drawing us ever closer to the end of this altogether lukewarm season. I can’t really say I’ll be missing this one, as half of my airing schedule are actually long-running shows that just so happened to cross this season (LoGH and MHA), while the other half hasn’t really been memorable enough to stick with me. This week was an unfortunate low ebb for most of what I’m watching, as My Hero Academia kinda stumbled in conveying a key manga moment, while Megalo Box couldn’t quite find enough emotional substance in its requisite “the band is breaking up” conflict. Meanwhile, Hinamatsuri seems to be running out of gas for a few of its running jokes, while Legend of the Galactic Heroes… well actually, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is pretty much always great. Let’s start with that then, and open with some positive thoughts about cynical themes as we run this week down!
Today for Crunchyroll, I did a very enjoyable character profile on one of My Hero Academia’s most compelling figures. All Might is critical to My Hero Academia in a thematic and character arc sense, but he’s also just a really endearing guy who’s always fun to see on screen. I hope I properly highlighted both these fractions of All Might’s appeal, and also hope you enjoy the piece!
Everyone Loves All Might And Here’s Why!
This week in anime was dominated by the shows that tend to be the benchwarmers, as both Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Hinamatsuri stepped up while Megalo Box and My Hero Academia each settled for more conventional episodes. That was totally fine by me – to be honest, the kind of things that Galactic Heroes and Hinamatsuri are good at appeal to me far more than the things Megalo Box and MHA generally succeed in, so I was happy to see them offer some new highlights. Hinamatsuri is just such an idiosyncratic thing, defined by a comic sensibility that clearly stands out among anime comedies, and matching that sense of humor with a confidence that lets it pull off eight minute segments dedicated to single extended jokes. Let’s start off with those wacky psychic shenanigans and run this week down!
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Week in Review. With Legend of the Galactic Heroes taking the week off, my week in anime lost twenty-five percent of its volume, but worked hard to make up for in quality what it lacked in quantity. This week’s My Hero Academia was mostly just “solid original material (plus one highlight), adapted competently,” but both Hinamatsuri and Megalo Box knocked it out of the park, demonstrating both their consistent strengths and a variety of new tricks. Those two make for a pretty weird combination, but between them they cover an oddly exhaustive range of the stuff I look for in anime – stylish action, tactically-minded sports narratives, warm comedy, charming character pieces, etc. I’m basically just missing “auteur-directed,” “strong romance,” “themey-wemey show,” and “psychological drama” on my bingo sheet, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes is generally happy to hold down the theme fort. The anime is good and even these three shows have offered me plenty to talk about, so let’s get right down to another week in review!
My Hero Academia followed up on what basically felt like its first act climax with some cooldown in this volume, focusing on lots of nitty-gritty tactical fights and introducing a whole country’s worth of new heroes in training. It’s a good time, you can check out my further thoughts through the link below, etc etc.
The anime was good this week, folks. Actually, the anime’s been pretty damn good these past two weeks, with Megalo Box pulling off what was easily its most satisfying fight yet, Hinamatsuri finally establishing what feels like a confident balance between its various modes, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes just chugging away as consistently as ever. If Megalo Box can maintain the standard set by the second half of Aragaki’s fight, it could easily end up being my favorite show of the season – of course, that also depends on how My Hero Academia handles its upcoming highlights. We’ve basically got a seasoned pro squaring off against an energetic young gun here, and whoever wins, we in the audience get to enjoy all of it. Let’s settle back and run these past weeks down in one more week in review!
Alright folks, let’s all buckle in for the spring season’s first half in review! Usually, this is the time where I rank all the things I’m actively watching, using this informal halfway point marker to plot out how I feel about the season as a whole. But at this point, I just don’t watch enough airing shows to make that feel meaningful, and I haven’t for a while. That’s not to say I’m watching any less anime – I’m actually watching more anime than ever, it’s just scattered across airing shows, full releases for ANN, and independent projects for you guys. And personally, I’m significantly happier this way – keeping up with shows just because they’re hits wasn’t ever very fun for me, arguing about whether some megahit is great or terrible is mostly exhausting to me, and cutting down to the shows I’m genuinely really enjoying has led to a far more positive relationship with anime in general.
Unfortunately, all that reflection and self-growth doesn’t really help the old-fashioned, extremely arbitrary First Half in Review. So for at least this edition, I’m going to keep what works and toss what doesn’t really make sense, and run through some overall thoughts on my shows so far without implying those thoughts are any kind of ranking or evaluation. I’ve never been a person who cares to evaluate what makes an 8.74/10 show better than an 8.72/10 show – I want to know what makes either of those shows interesting in their own right, and hopefully me digging at that is a little interesting for you too. So let’s start with My Hero Academia for the hell of it and run this season down!
Sometimes this job is so damn great. I had a lot of fun with this week’s Why It Works, as I looked back to catalog pretty much everything My Hero Academia’s second-most-heroic class roster have accomplished. As it turns out, the answer is Not Much, and a pretty hilarious Not Much at that. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Oh Right, You Guys Are Here Too
Welp, looks like it’s about time for another Week in Review. The spring season is pretty much just holding steady at the moment, with the action highlights and Galactic Heroes maintaining their usual appeal while Hinamatsuri trudges along the best it can. My schedule is turning out to be as light as I expected, and frankly, if I had some other well-written character drama to replace it, Hinamatsuri would be right out. That said, I’m not truly in any hurry to pick up more shows; this being a weak season also means I was able to find time for stuff like catching up on Violet Evergarden, which I’m very thankful for. Even if the actual airing shows disappoint, any season where I’m personally watching through productions like Princess Tutu and Chihayafuru can’t be that bad. But let’s put aside the paeans to backlog for now, and run down this week’s newest contenders!